Decent Work: How Government Can Get Back on the Side of Promoting Good Jobs

Decent Work: How Government Can Get Back on the Side of Promoting Good Jobs

Article excerpt

During World War II and the postwar boom, when unions had more influence and labor laws from the New Deal era were enforced, increasing numbers of Americans enjoyed a regularized working life. This included predictable earnings and benefits that increased with the productivity of the economy as well as a regular relationship with an employer who was subject to laws governing wages, hours, and working conditions.

Thanks to these laws and the power of the labor movement, during the first decades after the war, more and more workers joined what economists call the primary labor market--regular jobs with reliable wages, benefits, and terms of employment. The expectation was that casual jobs would gradually take on the characteristics of primary ones.

Instead, more and more jobs today are becoming casualized. The informal economy is encroaching on the formal. Supposedly, this shift reflects mainly the technical changes in the information economy. But temporary and contract employment is being used far beyond technological imperatives or the necessity of employers for flexibility--because it helps employers avoid unions and evade legal obligations.

Millions of workers who report to the same job at the same employer every day are disguised as contract or temporary workers. Millions of others who may have more than one employer are denied basic rights under the law.

But it doesn't have to be that way, even with the existing structure of industry. Between government's power as a contractor and government's ability to start systemically enforcing laws already on the books, millions of bad jobs could be turned into good ones.

There is no good reason why government could not once again play a more assertive role in regularizing the rights of workers and the conditions of work. What's missing is the political will and the political coalition to demand these actions of government. Some of this would take legislation, but much of it could be done by executive order and enforcement. Actions are already being taken by progressive city governments, such as Los Angeles', to improve the conditions of private-sector jobs over which the city has some leverage.

THIS SPECIAL REPORT includes several articles by distinguished labor writers that survey labor abuses across a wide spectrum of occupations and industries; initiatives being taken by state, federal, and local government; and a review by labor historian Steve Fraser of the leverage of government contracting during World War II. …